The Jacksonites to meet May 27

Mass communication alumni of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka gather together Sunday, May 27 in the second physical meeting of the association formed as an online group in 2016.

Ms Susan Eshett, a former executive at ExxonMobil and the Nigerian Television Authority, will host the communication professionals at the Northern Foreshore Estate, off Chevron Drive, Lekki, Lagos.

Prof Pat Utomi, the president, hosted the first meeting of the group in 2016. The Jacksonites meet online, deploying the social media platforms of WhatsApp and Telegram.

The Jacksonites Alumni Association is now a body corporate registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.

Top on the agenda of the May 27 meeting would be progress on the resolve of the association to erect a new building for the department. The department commenced as the Jackson College of Journalism as one of the foundation departments of the University of Nigeria. It is one of the first university centres for the training of journalists and mass communication professionals in Africa, in the realisation of the vision of the founder of the university and journalism great, the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe.

They will be acting on a charge from Prof Utomi, president, who asked Jacksonites to see erecting the building as a challenge for their generation. Utomi stated, “It is given to every generation of every group of well-meaning people the privilege of generating a signature initiative that will define their time of being. Whether they capture the moment with the choice they make or drift into the obscurity of history is the grand question of that epoch. For us in the Jackson family, our big yes to building a befitting edifice that will be home to the Jackson School and its satellite centres kickstarted the embrace of the pursuit of that signature initiative.”